So-called ‘ICE Barbie’ Kristi Noem has claimed 1.6 million migrants have left the country since President Donald Trump took office but the group behind the number says it may be overstated.
The Homeland Security secretary, known for donning Immigrations and Customs Enforcement gear for publicity stunts, appeared on Fox News Thursday to share, “We have 1.6 million illegal immigrants that have left this country voluntarily.”
“I think these numbers just show exactly the genius of Donald J. Trump,” she said. “He said, ‘Kristi, if you’re gonna be my Homeland Security secretary, we’re gonna follow the law, you’re gonna do commercials, you’re gonna tell the world that no longer will we tolerate people being in our country illegally and that they need to go home.’”
Homeland Security posted on X Thursday, sharing what it said was “unprecedented” data showing, “1.6 MILLION illegals are OUT of our country in the last 200 days.”
The data was from a release published by the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-profit research organization that describes itself as “low-immigration, pro-immigrant.”
The non-profit analyzed data from the government’s Current Population Survey and found the estimated number of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. in January was 15.8 million and it decreased to 14.2 million by July.
But there were some caveats the non-profit mentioned including the possibility immigrants may now be more reluctant to respond to the government survey because of “the recent stepped-up enforcement efforts.”
“If this is the case, then our estimate of illegal immigrants based on the survey may be overstating the decline in their actual numbers,” the non-profit warned.
The group also noted the July data is just preliminary as “some of the administrative data necessary to estimate illegal immigrants is not yet available.”
The Independent has reached out to DHS for comment.
DHS says the 1.6 million figure refers to those who left the U.S. on their own.
The agency has pushed for illegal immigrants to self-deport to avoid being arrested and to potentially return legally to the country in the future. It has even offered to pay for illegal immigrants’ travel expenses and give them an extra $1,000 if they self-deport.
But DHS has also more notably cracked down on illegal immigration through ICE raids across the country.
More than 352,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested, and more than 324,000 have been removed from the U.S., according to a Thursday press release from DHS.
But data shows the pace of daily immigration arrests fell nearly 20 percent in July.
Between July 1 and 27, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement averaged 990 daily arrests, down from 1,224 the previous month, according to government data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research project based at Syracuse University.
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